Philadelphia, PA

In 2011, fellow designed, built and piloted Textizen to collect feedback via SMS. In this way, traditionally disenfranchised groups were able to participate in city issues and public feedback increased tenfold. In 2012, fellows built tools to explore public art, track city council meetings, find community groups and understand the impact of transportation choices.

2012 Fellowship

In 2012 Philadelphia’s City Planning Commission (CPC) was worried about low attendance at public meetings.

Citizen feedback is essential to the health of any democracy, but in-person meetings were personnel-intensive, expensive and those who attended represented a vocal minority. They enlisted the 2012 CfA fellows Alex Yule, Liz Hunt and Michelle Lee to encourage new forms of public feedback.

At the time, only 59 percent of Philadelphia residents had access to broadband internet at home, while 90% had access to mobile phones. The fellows designed, built and piloted Textizen for the CPC to collect feedback via SMS. In this way traditionally disenfranchised groups were able to participate in city issues and public feedback increased tenfold. To date, Textizen has received inquiries from 110 cities across the United States, is currently working with 15+ cities, and has re-deployed in Boston and Salt Lake City.

The team has been so successful that they were accepted into the Code for America startups program, won the Knight News Challenge and have spun out into a full-fledged company.